Infrastructure Week: Making life more comfortable and predictable
It’s Infrastructure Week – a week dedicated to spotlighting our nation’s roads, pipes, bridges, dams, water towers, street lights, power plants, electrical grids, sewer treatment and more.
It’s the stuff that makes our 21st century American lives as comfortable and predictable – indeed, as “civil” – as they are. Because things “work” – the lights come on when we flip a switch, the water flows when we turn on a tap, bridges carry us over landscapes that would otherwise be impassable – we are able to focus on building stronger communities.
Reliable, dependable infrastructure allows us to concentrate on creating economic opportunity through jobs and business activity, educating our children, creating and supporting the arts, fulfilling our consumerist whims and all the other things that help us enjoy life and prosper.
As civil engineers, we’re into infrastructure… big-time. It’s our livelihood, as well as our passion. We are acutely aware of the critical role infrastructure plays in our lives, our community and our country. It’s vital we continue to invest in the systems that take care of our society’s basic needs.
Infrastructure Week draws attention to the need to continue investing in the projects, technologies and policies that keep America prosperous and safe.
Check out the hundreds of events scheduled throughout the country, and take a moment to consider how safe, predictable infrastructure impacts your own life. Later this week, we’ll post another blog highlighting an element of infrastructure that’s still emerging – tracking infrastructure through GIS.
Until then, enjoy the benefits of civilization.